Meet Academy graduate Rob Bruce

News Academy graduate Robert Bruce has been busy since attending our summer school in 2014. Since then Rob has landed his own national radio show with Capital XTRA, interviewing stars from across the music industry. We caught up with Rob on his new role.

What have you been up to since you graduated from the News Academy?

Since I graduate from the News Academy I’ve been blessed to do a number of things. During my studies at Leeds University I had my own student show called SpiceUK. This grew into a media company giving young creatives a platform to develop their craft before moving to the next stage of their career. We won two national student radio awards.

With SpiceUK I got access to a number of cool events from London Fashion week to the Sports Personality of The Year and Mobo Awards Red Carpets.

While at Uni I also landed my first proper industry job working for BBC Introducing in Hull, Sheffield and Manchester.

And in the process of completing my degree I was offered my first presenting job at Capital Xtra, the job I’m currently in. I started off covering the overnight show (2am-6am) before moving to Saturday breakfast and Sunday afternoon. At the moment I have my own specialist show Saturdays 4-7pm playing the best in UK music, interviewing some cool guests and giving young DJs a chance to mix their favourite tracks on national radio.

I also look after the Sunday afternoon show and cover the evening presenters if they are not in.

What can listeners expect from your show?

If you tune in to my shows you can expect to hear all the most popular tracks from the urban scene at the moment. On a Saturday you’ll hear more emerging artists from time to time, but the main thing is if it’s a banger we play it.

What is a ‘day in the life’ of Robert Bruce?

My day to day life varies a lot. During the week I work on a lot of projects, continue to develop SpiceUK and my own personal brand too. There’s a lot of meetings, networking and MUSIC! One week I’ll be on the Black Panther Premier Red Carpet and another week I’ll be in my bedroom mixing new music, my day to day really changes.

Who has been your favourite interviewee/ red carpet moment?

So far I’ve interviewed a number of different people from Lupita and Michael B Jordan to Stormzy, Steflon Don and Not3s – but my favourite moment so far has been Interviewing Michael Dapaah at the Mobos Red Carpet in Leeds. It was such a fun and genuine moment, I think we were both happy to be there and really took it in.

What are your five hot tracks right now?

Woah that’s a hard one!

Shaka – Man Down

Mist – Display Skills

Afro B – Drogba

Mr Eazi – Pour Me Water

Jammer – Flows Like Despa

There’s a few more but they haven’t been released yet 😉

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